


I Now Proclaim Freedom For You

by sageclover61



Series: Likened Water into Blood [2]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Injured Jack Kline, Jack Kline Needs A Hug, M/M, Michael (Supernatural) has cancer, Sam Winchester is Jack Kline's Parent, the grace equivalent of cancer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-06
Updated: 2020-01-06
Packaged: 2021-02-27 16:07:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22139809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sageclover61/pseuds/sageclover61
Summary: Raphael had just recently saved Jack Kline's life, but Jack had heard a cry for help from somewhere and he knew that he had no choice but to rescue whoever it was, even if it it meant traveling to the deepest parts of Hell when he was supposed to be resting.
Relationships: Michael/Adam Milligan, Raphael/Sam Winchester
Series: Likened Water into Blood [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1572451
Comments: 5
Kudos: 30





	I Now Proclaim Freedom For You

Jack knew it was a bad idea. He knew that he should be resting, that he should ask for help, but there wasn’t enough time for it. He was sure that he had heard the last desperate cries of someone dying and he had to do  _ something. _

The only thing he didn’t know was how he would be able to do it.

He’d flown before, but it had never been far, and never when he felt this weak.

But he was going to do it anyway. There were no other choices. He would not, could not, leave whoever he had heard calling out for help.

And so he flew towards the sounds that he had heard.

It had been much further than he’d ever flown before, by the time he realized where the cries he’d heard were leading him, but he continued on regardless, not wanting to leave anyone who was so clearly in pain alone.   
  
Before he could figure out how he was actually going to get to where the sound had come from, he was hitting a floor.

Correction.

It was not really a floor. Not in the sense of floors like the bunker’s, or any of the motels he had been in. Those had been hard, but at least tried to give off the sense of comfort and safety. They had also been solid and more importantly, they had been  _ real _ . __

The white carpet he fell through did not exist. Had it been real, it would have been the whitest and softest thing he had ever seen or touched. But he couldn't  _ feel _ it.

Instead, he landed hard on sharp metal that was colder than any floors he could remember. It seemed to strip him of his body heat, like being shoved in a vat of liquid nitrogen.

Everything hurt and his knees were bleeding. He hadn't ever been able to bleed before, so why was he bleeding now?

"Raph-?"

Jack tilted his head towards the voice. It was definitely the voice he had heard calling desperately, but he did not know who they were.

"No, Raph isn't here," the same voice decided. "Why would Raphi be here? Raphi would be with their mate."

The other individual,  _ archangel _ , Jack's mind supplied, was still staring at him and didn't seem inclined to stop, so he said, "I'm Jack," in hopes of clearing up the confusion.

The archangel, maybe this was the Michael of this universe, continued staring. "You can't be Jack. Lucifer sired Jack. You feel more like Raphael." Michael blinked. "But that doesn't make sense either, Raphael always made it pretty clear that was not the sort of thing they really felt like engaging in. But perhaps with their new mate-"

"Raphael and Sam adopted me," Jack interrupted with. "But Lucifer did ' _ sire _ ' me, as you said."

"I didn't know it was possible to change the type of grace in that way." Michael shook his head. "Not sure why it's you I'm hallucinating, though. What do I know about the intricacies of grace adoptions and types changing."

"I'm not a hallucination," Jack said. "I'm here to help, I heard your call."

Michael glanced behind him, and Jack was able to see a fallen form lying against the metal wall of the cage. He was lying on the illusion of softest white carpet.

"Adam…"

Jack recognized that tone. Recognized Michael's pain at seeing the human he cared for in such a state. He could see Adam's soul, and had never seen a soul so dull. Despite having seen only a few souls since Raphael had taught him how a few days before, he knew this soul should not look this way.

Raphael had shown him Sam's soul first, but even before he could see any other souls, he'd been able to see flickers from Sam's. Castiel had explained that as due to Sam's soul as being the brightest of any human.

Adam stirred feebly in the direction of Michael's voice, but Jack could tell the unconscious human would not be stirring any more than that, and that he possibly never would again if they didn't get out of here and back home  _ right now _ .

"- Know that there were four main grace types, Adam? The other archangels and I all have a different type." Michael sighed, nostalgic. "Little Gabriel's grace was receptive to all of ours, and this was important because he got into  _ so much trouble _ . I wish you could have met him."

"You can!" Jack pulled himself to his feet, stumbling at the amount of pain in his knees and wings. "He's with Sam and Raphael and Dean and Cas!"

Michael turned his head back towards Jack, and smiled sadly. "See? You're a hallucination telling me what I want to hear and bringing me false comfort. Gabriel is dead. Lucifer  _ killed him _ . And it was just another reminder of just how badly I failed my family."

"He's not dead!" Jack repeated. But it was too late. Michael was turning back towards Adam, ignoring him as a figment of his imagination and Jack knew there was nothing he could do to change the archangel's mind. So he did something drastic.  _ He flew _ .

  
  


Flying was not something he had learned to do formally yet. Castiel had always said his wings weren't ready, and Raphael had said he needed to rest for awhile and recover before he was ready to do anything as intensive as learning how to fly.

And now that his wings were smouldering, he was pretty sure he was going to be grounded forever and that would include a ban against any and all flying.

Not that he felt like ever flying ever again. His entire being ached, but his wings hurt more than anything ever had before, so he was lying on the very uncomfortable ground in the very dark space he'd crash landed, having towed both Michael and Adam out of whatever containment space they'd been trapped inside. He was also sobbing.

"Maybe you're not a hallucination after all. But how do we get you home."

Jack didn't really care. He just wanted Sam or Cas or Raphael to come get him. He wanted to go home to the bunker.  _ Would they kick him out for doing this? _

"Let's go, then. We don't want to stay here in Hell. It's neither the safest nor most comfortable place for us to rest."

He felt a hand being brushed against his shoulder and then they were flying. He wasn't the one flying, but it still aggravated his wings and had him crying out in pain. He wanted Sam, and he wanted to go home, and he really wanted Raphael to ease the pain he was in.

Jack had no idea where Michael was taking him, but they were intercepted before they reached their destination by a golden light arching towards them as they flew through the darkness that was less revealing of their location and more a factor of this mode of travel that was not as instant as the humans experienced it.

"Raphael!" 

Michael wavered, and Raphael caught Jack before Michael could drop him. There was a change in direction and a few more minutes of flight as Raphael led them in a new direction.

Finally, the blackness of the flight void eased off as they stilled and shifted back to the mortal plane. They were on the ground outside the bunker, as the wards prevented the unidentified from entering or flying into the bunker as a wise safety precaution.

"Raph, can you save Adam?" Michael sounded terrified, fearing both Raphael's possible refusal and the possibility that there was nothing they could do to save  _ his  _ human.

"Can you put him down so I can get a better look?" Raphael asked after a moment of hesitation. He didn’t want to let go of Jack, who was still clinging to him, frightened and whimpering, but he knew that there would be no cease to Michael’s demands on their attention if they didn’t check Adam first.

Michael gingerly put Adam down on the grass, but his touches lingered before Raphael’s stare finally made him stand up again and take a step. Even still, he kept his eyes on Adam, concern and worry spread across his face.

“He’s not dying,” Raphael promised. They recognized the expression on Michael’s face. They’d seen the very same one on Sam’s face when Amara had attacked them. Except it had been worse in Sam’s case, because they really had died in front of Sam. But Adam wasn’t going to be dying today. That much they could tell already.

Raphael ran a quick scan that determined that while Adam was comatose and extremely weak, he was stable. There was also enough lingering grace, possibly from Michael trying to heal him, that it was not safe for them to try any sort of healing on him. Michael’s grace did not seem to have caused any identifiable ill effects on Adam, but the same could not be said about what it would do to Raphael.

Even in the small amount that remained, Raphael could tell that there was something very  _ wrong _ about Michael’s grace.

“Adam’s going to be okay?” Michael asked as Raphael completed the scan.

“He’s going to be fine,” Raphael agreed. “I imagine that unless he suffers from a greater relapse, that he’ll make a full recovery. I can’t say how long that’ll take though.”

“Can you tell what happened to him? What the cage did?” Michael worried his lip. “He seemed to be doing fine for so long, except then he was getting fatigued easier and more often, until he was just so tired all the time.”

Raphael nodded. “I can’t exactly, as I only ran a basic scan because there’s too much ambient grace present for anything else, but I suspect the cage was feeding from the energy provided by his soul to the point where it almost burned Adam out. But as I said, he’ll be fine once he rests and can recuperate. Okay?”

“Okay.” Michael seemed unconvinced, but Raphael knew that was about the best they could expect right now, and there really were more important things to worry about. Like the fact that Jack’s wings were still smouldering.

“Jack, Sweetheart,” they said, sitting carefully so that they could shift Jack into a better angle on their lap. “We were so worried about you when you flew off. I was afraid you were going to burn through your grace again.” They carefully healed what they could of the worst burnt patches in Jack’s wings, but most of it Jack’s grace would have to heal, once it had replenished to a safe level. Jack had supposed to be taking it easy and resting for a reason.

Jack whined in Raphael’s arms. “There was a cry for help and I had to! There was no time to wait!”

“I know.” Raphael tried to find an uninjured spot on Jack’s back or wings so that they could provide a comforting and reassuring touch, but it was difficult to find such an unmarred surface.

Gabriel and Sam walked out into the backyard having heard that Jack had returned to them. They approached, but did not go so close that they would intrude on Michael’s moment with Adam or Raphael’s with Jack.

Jack glanced around Raphael and saw Sam. “Sam!” he exclaimed, reaching out towards the human even as he winced as it drew his injured back taut. 

Sam hesitated until he saw Raphael’s hand move, motioning him to come closer. “Hey, Kiddo,” he said once he was close. “How are you feeling?”

Jack didn’t answer, shaking his head and continuing to reach for Sam with grasping hands.

Raphael shifted Jack so that they could pass the nephil to Sam gently and without causing the child any further pain. “Gentle,” they mumbled to Sam.

Sam nodded, easing the injured child he thought of as his into his arms, and sat down on the ground. “He’s going to be okay?” Sam asked Raphael, in reference to Jack.

“He’ll be fine,” Raphael promised. “No flying until I clear you though, okay kiddo? You’ve got some severe 3rd degree burns, not to mention that your grace is still depleted and it’ll take some good luck that you won’t need another transfusion later. Unfortunately, we won’t know for a few days. I’d like to only do it if it’s absolutely last resort. I don’t think you need to be on bedrest, but that’s another option, isn’t it?”

“It is,” Sam agreed.

“I’m sorry, Sam,” Jack mumbled into Sam’s chest. “I’ll behave, you don’t have to put me on bedrest.”

“You’re a good kid, and we’re not talking about bedrest because you flew off, Jack. We were worried about you hurting yourself. You were already unwell, and now you’re more injured, and we’re just really worried about you.”

“It won’t happen again, I swear I won’t run off.” Jack sobbed, panic rising in his voice. He didn’t want to be in trouble, or cause trouble. He’d just known that he had to go rescue the one who was calling for help, and he’d been  _ right _ . 

Despite what what Raphael had said about Adam just needing a lot of rest and sleep to recover, Jack  _ knew  _ that if Adam had not been removed from the cage that had served as his and Michael’s prison, he would have died. He had been dying, and it would have killed him. His soul should not have been so dull as to seem to be close to fading.

He shifted slightly so that he could see Adam around Sam’s torso. The soul was still dull, but it did appear to be slightly brighter than it had been in the cage, so he took that as a sign that he had been successful in his mission of saving them.

Sam ruffled Jack’s hair, and seeing that Jack was looking in the direction with a soft smile on his face, he glanced over his own shoulder to see what would have made the child smile.

Nothing appeared to have changed. Michael was still sitting next to Adam, who was still deeply sleeping. He wasn’t sure how to feel about the eldest archangel being here, or that Jack had clearly entered  _ The Cage _ to retrieve both his  _ younger brother  _ along with the archangel.

He had never really thought about Adam. Perhaps he should have, but there’d never been time and everyone else had assumed that Michael had returned Adam’s soul to Heaven once he’d taken everything he’d wanted from him. 

He’d known better, of course, as once Castiel had raised him from The Cage, wholly intact, he had been able to remember that he had not been the only human in the cage. But Michael and Adam had been separate from him and Lucifer in a way that had to an extent prevented them from engaging, and Michael had not harmed Adam, just as Lucifer had not harmed him.

There had been too many assumptions and too many lies, between himself and Dean, and he had no idea where to start to rectify them. How was Dean going to react to this development? The Michael in Apocalypse world had possessed Dean against his will before Jack had been able to destroy him. It was nothing short of a miracle that Jack had been able to destroy Michael without harming Dean, but Sam wasn’t sure he had any idea what that invasion and betrayal of autonomy had done to his brother.

They had learned a long time ago that angels weren’t the same benevolent creatures he’d believed in for a long time. He had his Raphael, who he loved endlessly, but the rest of the angels weren’t like that. And Dean had Cas. But that in no way had prepared them for the atrocities that they angels had committed in the Apocalypse World. Had not prepared them in any way at all.

“Sam?” Raphael whispered, as they noticed Sam’s thoughts drifting farther and farther away from the present.

Sam blinked. He was about to mumble an acknowledgment to his name being said, but something distracted him. He could make out the dull light that could be nothing else except Adam’s soul, but there was something else as well.

Human souls were powerful, and the auras they produced could be almost any color that existed either on the light spectrum or could be seen by the human eye. There were a few very specific exceptions, and blue was the obvious one. Human souls were not blue nor could they produce a blue aura. Whether or not this was of any relation to the fact that Grace always appeared blue to the human eye was not something Sam knew the answer to. He merely knew that he mostly saw Grace as a blue color, and that human souls were never that same color.

So why was there so much blue in Adam’s aura? Michael was clearly infatuated with Adam, whether or not that was reciprocated, (he hoped that it was) but was there anything more to it than that?

Perhaps even worse than the fact that Adam’s aura was mostly blue, was the fact that it did not appear to be a healthy shade of blue. In fact, it was not a shade of blue he had seen from any other grace. It also very clearly belonged to Michael.

“Raph? Is Michael’s grace supposed to be keeping Adam asleep?” Sam wasn’t sure how he knew that was what it was doing, but he knew that there was no mistake in what was going on.

Raphael raised an eyebrow, confused by what exactly what Sam was seeing, but as they studied their eldest brother and the human he loved, they understood what Sam was seeing, and correct about. They’d known that there was an excess of Michael’s grace in Adam, but not what it was doing besides possibly having saved him if it had in fact been necessary. “I’m not sure why that’s occurring, but I’ll reverse that when I check on Michael. Are you and Jack going to be okay for a few minutes?”

Sam glanced at the child who had gone from sobbing in his arms to gently dozing. “I’m sure we’ll be fine,” he whispered.

With a nod, Raphael moved back in the direction of Michael and Adam. “Michael,” they said gently, “Would it be alright if I make sure that you’re okay and that you’re not suffering any undue harm from the cage?”

Michael shrugged. “Go ahead,” he said. “I can’t believe we’re here. I thought I was hallucinating when Jack joined us in the cage. I thought he was you, at first, his grace feels so much like yours. I almost wished I had some of your knowledge on the intricacies of grace.”

“The simplified version is pretty easy to understand,” Raphael reminded him. “Each of us has a different kind of grace.” They considered their brother for a moment. “But I suspect your grace is no longer the same as it was when we were still in Heaven.”

“From the cage?” Michael guessed.

“I would assume as much. Anyway, I’m just going to scan and make sure there’s nothing too wrong with you or your grace.”

Raphael already knew from how wrong Michael’s grace had felt that touching Michael’s grace themself was not a good idea, so they were very careful in how they conducted the scan.

Everything about Michael’s grace screamed wrongness. It was dull and oily, with a color as splotchy as an ocean polluted by a spill. The texture and color should have been a like a silky azure of perfect sky, but instead, it seemed mottled and clotted. Almost as if an entire component was missing.

Worse, as Raphael allowed their grace to follow the flow of Michael’s through his being, he found that the grace was sluggish, lethargic, and that certain aspects of the vessel almost seemed to be taking internal damage from whatever was wrong with Michael’s grace.

The vessel was running a low grade fever, with internal bruising in the ribs and around the spleen area.

As Raphael withdrew from the scan, they cast a concerned look in Adam’s direction as they subtly released the hold Michael’s grace had on forcing Adam into slumber. Adam was not being used as Michael’s vessel, but the shell Michael was wearing was almost a duplicate, except Michael’s vessel looked even more unhealthy than Adam appeared, as on top of appearing malnourished, it was also slightly jaundiced, with bruises that made very little sense.

“Everything normal?” Michael asked, seemingly unworried for his own sake.

Raphael wanted to shower. Even though they hadn’t actively touched Michael’s sickly grace, they could almost imagine how doing so might have felt. They studied Michael’s calm facade for a moment. Had their eldest brother simply failed to  _ notice  _ that his vessel was so unwell? Or that the state of his grace was such a disaster?

Was it contagious? Would it kill Michael if left unattended? These were the kinds of questions that mattered, and yet they had no ideas about where to even start in answering them. And what were they supposed to tell Michael? That he was suffering something they had never seen or heard of before? That seemed unwise, before they knew more. Sending Michael into a panic would not  _ help _ anything.

“Have you… noticed anything unusual about your vessel lately?” Raphael asked.

Michael shrugged. “Not really? I think it’s new though. I didn’t have it before the kid showed up.”

Raphael blinked. That almost explained why the vessel had seemed more like a physical shell than a human being, but only left more questions about its health conditions, but that made it seem more likely that Michael’s grace was the cause of the vessel’s damage, and not the other way around.

“And you haven’t noticed there being anything wrong with your grace?”

Again, Michael shook his head. “I have been more fatigued lately, but I just assumed that was from the cage. Do you think it’s something else?”

“I’m not sure yet,” Raphael said. They didn’t want to tell Michael all their suspicions yet, they wanted to do some research first. And take that shower. “Your grace is probably about to be expected for having been in the Cage for awhile.” They glanced over at Sam. “Perhaps we should all go inside and find a place for you and Adam to rest that is not out here on the ground?” Everyone seemed to agree. “Gabriel, can you help Michael carry Adam inside?”

“Sure.” Gabriel walked over help Michael while Raphael rejoined Sam, and walked with their mate as Sam carried Jack inside.

“ _ Everything okay, Raph? _ ” Sam asked, silently, with a glance in Michael’s direction.

“I’m not sure,” Raphael whispered. “I think we should retire for the evening.”

Gabriel and Michael carried Adam to the destination of Gabriel’s choice while Raphael walked with Sam back to their shared bedroom.

“Are  _ you _ okay?” Sam asked as the two of them undressed and Raphael eyed the adjourned bathroom.

Raphael exhaled slowly. They didn’t  _ need  _ a shower. Not when the vessel Gabriel had helped them craft was very much an extension of their celestial being, and their grace was very capable of keeping it clean and healthy without needing human moments. Yet just getting so close to Michael’s unhealthy grace had left them feeling unclean.

“Go take the shower,” Sam said. “Jack and I will still be here when you’re done.”

“How did you-?”   
  


“You’ve been staring the whole time we’ve been here. And before you say that you don’t need one because you’re not human, I think that if you think you need it or would enjoy it, that’s reason enough to take it. Self care, right? And it’s not like we’re ever going to run out of water or shower supplies.”

Raphael smiled at their mate. “That’s right. Thank you.”

They returned from the shower feeling refreshed. Jack was still sleeping beside Sam, who was still awake and waiting for them, and they laid down on the other side of Jack.

“I love you,” Raphael whispered. “Goodnight.” They leaned over Jack to kiss Sam’s forehead.

“Love you, too,” Sam answered. “Night.”

The archangel and the human fell asleep like that, the injured nephil sleeping peacefully between them. Not everything had been fixed yet, but that didn’t matter. Everything else could wait.


End file.
